Scum of the Earth, or nice guys?

October 14, 2018

No, I don't mean having all this rainy weather. Although that is pretty unlucky. It is causing a lot of stress for a lot of folks, from farmers to construction crews.

But I refer to something else that could be considered bad luck.

I mean the fact that we who live in the First Congressional District have two of the worst scoundrels to ever walk the face of the Earth as our two choices of who will represent us in Congress for the next couple of years.

I mean, these two guys, Dan Feehan and Jim Hagedorn are lying, worthless, awful human beings.

How do I know this? Well, I watch the TV news every morning and there is an unending series of television commercials telling me just how despicable these two men are. Ad after ad after ad about all the rotten things they have done and said, and how many terrible, horrible things they will do if they are elected to Congress.

One commercial even ends with the tagline by the deep-voiced narrator that says, "Jim Hagedorn. Unfit for Congress."

What were the Democrats and Republicans thinking when they gave us these two scumbags to choose from?

OK, the problem is, I have met these two guys. Hagedorn even lives just a few blocks away from me. They both seem like really nice, caring, sincere, and pretty bright people. Are they just acting nice, to hide their despicable true natures?

Nope. They really are very decent people.

Of course, the difference between them is that one is a pretty conservative Republican, and one is a rather liberal Democrat.

But mean and nasty, horrible scum? Nope.

If you pay attention, you will notice that the nasty ads about these two gentlemen are not sponsored by the candidates themselves, but by national political action groups.

The conservatives and national Republican Party really want Jim Hagedorn elected. The liberals and Congressional Democrats want Dan Feehan in Congress. That is because these parties want to control the House and Senate.

And these national organizations have deep pockets and lots of cash to spend on congressional races that they deem close and winnable. Like ours here in the Minnesota First District.

However, I wonder about their strategy and whether they are really getting any benefit for all the go-zillion dollars they are spending on these television commercials.

First off, I think all the Republicans are going to vote for Hagedorn anyway, all the Democrats for Feehan. They already have their minds made up. So the ones they want to target with those ads are us so-called swing voters. You know, the ones who don't vote right down party lines.

Their strategy is to show the other candidate in the worst possible light, and to convince us that our lives will be totally awful should the other guy get elected.

And then there is the fact a whole lot of us in Minnesota have already voted. Early voting here is going along at record rates. That means all these messages about the candidates are too late to do any good for all those absentee pre-election voters. They can't change their minds now.

Then there is the Minnesota Nice factor.

I wonder if these national groups putting on these ads realize that these nasty attack ads actually turn us Minnesotans off. That kind of negative advertising about the other candidate may work in places like New York, but most of us in Southern Minnesota don't care for it much.

Especially when it is practically non-stop. I swear I have seen the same ad six times in a half hour time period on the morning news.

So here is my advice.

Do a little study of the candidates and how they stand on the issues. Especially the issues that are important to you. Then vote for the one you think will do the best job for all of us in Southern Minnesota.

But don't be persuaded by all these negative attack ads. Don't vote for one candidate because you listened to these terrible 30-second commercials that tried to convince you the other one was a horrible, despicable person who is unfit to serve.

Because, actually, they are both pretty nice guys.

The same thing goes for all the other races you will see on ballot in November.